• Posted on: 18/07/2023
  • 2 minutes to read

The Independent Electoral Review was established in 2022 to consider how to make New Zealand’s electoral system clearer, fairer, and more accessible for current and future generations. In June 2023 the independent review panel released its interim report for public consultation.

As a democratic union, democracy is one of our core values. As the union for people working in public and community services, the governance of our society is important to us. In addition, many of our members in the public service and state sector are affected by the electoral system in their work: from members working in the Electoral Commission and Parliamentary Service, to those working on the development and implementation of government policy and the delivery of publicly delivered and publicly funded services.

The PSA’s submission on the interim report covered a range of areas of interest to PSA members. Our submission drew on the views of our democratically elected governance structure, and a survey of around 680 PSA members. 

In our submission we voiced our support for:

  • improving MMP by changing the party vote threshold and electorate seat threshold
  • holding a referendum on the length of the parliamentary term
  • lowering the voting age to 16
  • granting prisoners the right to vote (in principle, with further discussion needed about details)
  • making it easier for Māori to move between the Māori and general electorate rolls
  • making the electoral system better reflect Te Tiriti o Waitangi
  • entrenching several key aspects of law such as the Māori seats, the method for allocating seats in parliament, the party vote threshold, the right to vote and stand as a candidate
  • making voting more accessible
  • fairer funding of parties and limiting large anonymous donations.

This submission followed our earlier submission on the initial stages of the review in 2022, which you can read about here.

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